When IBM first kicked off the Dynamic Infrastructure announcement at Pulse 2009 conference, we heard some rumblings on whether Dynamic Infrastructure was just another executive buzzword or if there was real meat behind "the concept."

Doug McClure summarized the feeling well in his blog: “While this is great for executive level folks, I think we needed to drive this message into consumable and actionable things that lower level technical attendees could take back to their companies. They may be the ones who need to execute and show how previous or planned investments could help their company become smarter and more dynamic.”

After IBM’s announcement yesterday on new Dynamic Infrastructure offerings, critics will be hard-pressed to wonder whether Dynamic Infrastructure is actionable.Not only did IBM announce new products and services in the areas of Information Infrastructure, Virtualization, Service Management, and Energy Efficiency, but they also demonstrated how these solutions are helping three of our clients--the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation, Tricon Geophysics and the United States Bowling Congress--build new, more dynamic infrastructures to help reduce costs, improve service and manage risk.

A key piece of the announcement is the IBM Service Management Center for Cloud Computing, which now includes new IBM Tivoli Identity and Access Assurance, IBM Tivoli Data and Application Security, and IBM Tivoli Security Management for z/OS, for Cloud environments. I don’t know about you, but all that’s more meat than this vegetarian can handle. :)

To continue driving home the Dynamic Infrastructure success, IBM is sponsoring a variety of events for the public to learn more. Register for a free, local Pulse Comes to You event to see how Service Management is a key component for enabling a DyanmicInfrastructure for a Smarter Planet.

Recent IBM news on “Smarter Cities” is invoking fond
memories of one of my favorite courses at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute: Politics
of design taught by Professor
Langdon Winner. Some of my favorite discussions during this course focused
on urban theory and planning and environmentally and ethically responsible
innovations. A few of my favorite personal readings included:

While innovations and technologies always fascinate
me, personally I’m most interested in the political, socio-cultural aspects of
Palmisano’s statement below:

“All the ways in which the world
works come together in our cities. They are the proverbial melting pot -- not
only for immigrants, but for systems, blending them together to engender new
forms of commerce, of culture, of science, of life and of society. Which is why
cities -- more than states, provinces or even nations -- are likely to be the
crucible for human progress and evolution in the coming century.”

Smart cities require smart people and deliberate thinking. How will SmarterCity designs and innovations enable and constrain our attempts
to build ethical, sustainable, humane systems and relationships? What are key
philosophical and socio-cultural issues to consider in this endeavor?

In April 2010, IBM conducted an online survey of over 6400 adults working full- or part-time in office buildings in 16 major US cities. The survey showed that "US office buildings have failed to keep pace with the revolution in automation that pervades modern life. While cars, transportation systems, electrical grids and other systems are being instrumented and interconnected to be more efficient and user friendly, the majority of office buildings remain rooted in the past. As a result, this intelligence gap is taking a measurable toll in lost productivity and unnecessary spending."

So, how do you bridge this intelligence gap...or, in other words, how do you make buildings smarter?

It starts with a better way of managing those buildings: IBM Maximo Asset Management.

Maximo delivers holistic, end-to-end tracking and monitoring of all assets, at every point in their lifecycles. It helps make building facilities management simpler, faster and less expensive—thus essentially transforming buildings into smart buildings, capable of delivering their full potential to your organization. Specifically, Maximo can:

Establish contracts for labor and materials across the entire enterprise, allowing for better cost control.

Detect a shortfall in a cooling asset and automatically notify appropriate team members of the problem and create a prioritized schedule of corrective action.

Provide vendors direct access to Maximo, allowing them to view assigned work, request direct updates and provide real-time status. Notifications are generated by Maximo and are automatically distributed via e-mail to any device.

Manage vendor SLAs to monitor their overall performance. Should a vendor not be meeting specified service levels, Maximo can quantify the difference and initiate a suitable response.

Of course, there are many more examples of how Maximo can help you manage your facilities more efficiently and cost effectively, all of which enable a shift from facilities maintenance to facilities management, from a reactive stance to proactive stance, resulting in improved asset performance, longer asset life and ultimately more sustainable - and, dare I say - smarter buildings.

If you are friends of Tivoli experts on Twitter, you may see #tivtour tweets quite a bit this week. See my recent write up on this topic to learn more about the mystery event. Also, see Twitter Search for #tivtour on Twazzup
for a running stream of related tweets and photos. The Tivoli Tour runs
at many IBM locations this week and in Brazil on May 29. So you can
expect to see more Twitter conversations in the near future.

At Pulse 2010, my friend Cathy and her team put together an awesome little video demonstration of their new real time asset location solution for the Healthcare industry. The solution uses Maximo software to monitor and manage patients, staff and physical assets in a hospital. Check it out: